Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

"Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?"

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?
Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.
 
This book wins two awards from me this year: 
 
1) Best cover of the year! (So far)
 
2) Longest freaking book title in the history of mankind.
 
I first heard about this book a handful of months ago- about the time it came out. The idea intrigued me. I'm not really a believer in "love at first sight". I think it's more "LUST at first sight" and then it turns into love (which I think can happen quickly! I'm not totally cold hearted and cynical...)
 
To be honest, I had a really difficult time diving into this book. It's told in Third Person, Present Tense, which doesn't sound so bad, right? It is. It mostly just made me uncomfortable the whole book, even though I loved the story. If this book would have been much longer than its 236 pages, I would have put it down simply for the way it's told. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but for me, it was a huge distraction for most of the book. There were times that it was easy to ignore, but they were few and far between. 

So the question is: Would I recommend this. You may be surprised, but I whole-heartedly say YES!!! As I said, I loved the story. I loved both Hadley and Oliver and their chemistry as they got to know each other over the course of their flight. I loved the way they were brought back together at the most inopportune times and how fate worked it's fickle magic. I think it was a wonderful story. But... if you are reading along and can't figure out what seems so strange, now you know what it is.

Happy Reading!

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